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global dominance

The United States government continues to pursue assassinations against occupation resistance leaders in Iraq.

The New York Times has an article featured at the top of its webpage about a related outbreak of bombings in Iraq. Meanwhile, there is no mention on the front page of The Olympian website. For another perspective about what's happening in Iraq, I suggest Inside Iraq. Inside Iraq is updated by Iraqi journalists from inside Iraq.

On Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - the day that Howard Zinn passed away - about thirty or so people gathered on short notice in order to demonstrate solidarity with the oppressed people of Haiti and Honduras.

Earlier this week, and last week, Jose Luis Baquadero, a labor organizer from Honduras, visited Olympia. Baquadero gave a couple of presentations and talked with many people about the situation in Honduras.

Also on Wednesday, in Honduras, there were two major protests against the illegitimate inauguration as President of Porfirio Lobo. I heard an estimate that over one million people rallied in the Honduran protests to support coup ousted former President Zelaya.

The poverty experienced by so many people in both Haiti and Honduras has common threads, which can be traced back to US sanctioned and supported violence, oppression, and repression.

People at the demonstration talked about the need to distribute truthful and compelling information far and wide in order to clarify and reveal the whole story as it relates to the international policies of the US - so as to create the base for a critical mass of people power - in order to effect systemic changes.

The rally was organized by the Latin American Solidarity Organization (LASO) and the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace (OMJP).

In the cradle of civilization, young women have become terrified about having children.

This is the news I take with me into Thanksgiving and the season of gratitude and family togetherness: that doctors in Fallujah, the Iraqi city we devastated in two military assaults in 2004, have begun documenting a startling rise in birth defects - about 15 times the pre-invasion occurrence of early-life cancers and brain and nervous-system abnormalities, according to the U.K.'s Guardian.

A group of British and Iraqi doctors have petitioned the United Nations to investigate the situation, which is clearly related to the U.S. invasion and occupation. According to their letter: "In September 2009, Fallujah General Hospital had 170 newborn babies, 24 percent of whom were dead within the first seven days (and) a staggering 75 percent of the dead babies were classified as deformed." In comparison, the letter said, in August 2002 - before the invasion - 530 babies were born; six of them died within the first week, with a single birth defect reported.

Young women in Fallujah, the doctors wrote, "are terrified of having children because of the increasing number of babies born grotesquely deformed, with no heads, two heads, a single eye in their foreheads, scaly bodies or missing limbs."

At the time when Lindsay Baum went missing earlier this year, in June, I was actively researching about the Bohemian Grove. I have been interested in the Grove for a few years, and earlier this year I even had occasion to stop by for an uninvited visit (see photo). The Bohemian Grove is a place in Northern California (near the town of Monte Rio) where members of the Bohemian Club (of San Francisco) and their guests gather each year for a Summer Encampment marked with celebration and ceremony. Membership in the Bohemian Club, and attendance at Summer Encampment at the Bohemian Grove is limited to men: no women are allowed. The Grove has attracted attention throughout the years because of the prominence of its members and guests. Many extremely wealthy and powerful people have cheered each other on from the shores of its redwood forested Bechtel family donated artificial lake.

My intention here is to connect the problem of missing children and the policy of global dominance, with the Bohemian Grove, and the yearly cremation ceremony of the effigy of a child named Dull Care.

The Bohemian Club and its Grove are interesting in many ways. A thorough recollection of the organization is outside the scope of this article, but suffice it to say that many accounts exist, and there is much information that can be found in books and on the Internet. For the purposes of this article, I want to focus on a few aspects of the Summer Encampment at the Grove and those who attend.

Here's a video from a recent talk given by Brian Wilson at the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action. The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action formed in resistance to the Trident nuclear weapons system, which exists in capacity to launch first strike nuclear attack.

I would like to take this opportunity to suggest, to those whom are able, to consider making a financial donation to support the ongoing efforts at OlyBlog. I am sure that Rick, who runs this joint, would appreciate it.

Ramsey County prosecutors formally charged eight members of the RNC Welcoming Committee with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism. On Thursday, other members of the anarchist group held their first press conference. One local activist accused the police of beating and torturing him in jail. [includes rush transcript]

WILLIAM GILLIS:... I want to see a world of anarchy without domination, without thugs, without warlords, without tyrants and without politicians. And as an American, I believe in actively resisting those who would rule us all.

The brutality and the lies of the state this week are not a surprise, but they are still deplorable. Police kicked down doors with guns drawn on families with their children at dinnertime. Reporters and the media at large have been repeatedly target for repression. Activists have been abducted off the street in unmarked vans and political prisoners held without access to medical attention.

The state has never really bothered with ethical justifications for its violence. But now we see that the agents of the law don’t even bother with internal consistency, ignoring the few rights they have pledged not to violate. Sheriff Bob Fletcher has unleashed a degree of repression that should embarrass and anger us all.

Earlier today I participated in the Olympia Council MoveOn.org Operation Democracy Press Conference. The conference was held on the front steps of the Capitol Building in Olympia Washington. A report on the connection between the Iraq war and the failing economy was released to Washington State Senators Maria Cantwell, and Patty Murray, as well as to various members of the local news media.

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